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Stendhal Work Saved for France

Fears that France would lose a rareStendhal manuscript were allayedyesterday when the 93-year-old collectorwho had offered it for sale donated it to thenation, Agence France-Presse reported.The Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu deVabres hailed the gift by Pierre Berès as a"generous gesture" that helped to "bring tothe national collection an essential piece of19th-century literary history." He was referringto a version of "The Charterhouse ofParma," substantially reworked by Stendhal,as he noted in the draft, "following the advice of Mr. Balzac." Works byBalzac, Proust and Rimbaud from the Berès collection are among the manuscriptsand rare books valued at $7.5 million that are to be offered today at theDrouot auction house in Paris.